"Las Vegas; the glitz, the glitter, the gambling!" Las Vegas by Dutchnatasja

We were driving through the Nevada desert for an entire day when the city loomed up in front of us. It’s like you’ve been spending too much time in the heat. Were we starting to hallucinate? No! It was really there; Las Vegas.

You can say that it is a hallucination, but one made real, popping out of the desert in flashing neon excess. Ride a gondola, get married in a Chinese temple, roam the streets of Manhattan and shop in Paris: You can travel the world in Las Vegas simply by walking the Strip.

Las Vegas

Nevada is the only state in the USA where gambling is legal, and nowhere is this more evident than on the Las Vegas Strip, where there are more slot machines and roulette wheels than anywhere else in the world. The Strip, the 3½ miles stretch of Las Vegas is the heart of the city. It's a typical sight along the Strip, on almost any night: Visitors gather in front of a megaresort, lean against a fence, and wait to be entertained by erupting volcanoes, dancing water, fighting pirates and other attractions. The city is also famous as a place to get hitched, with around 200,000 couples visiting Las Vegas every year to get married. Ceremonies range from the kitsch, complete with Elvis impersonator in the Graceland Wedding Chapel to ultra-quick drive-in weddings at the Little White Chapel, open 24 hours a day.

Yes, the Las Vegas strip night scene is artificial, ostentatious and over the top, but it's unique and eye-popping enough for every traveler to experience it at least once in their lifetime.

La MIrage, Las Vegas

Every fifteen minutes from 7:00 p.m. to midnight, the earth shakes and flames shoot into the night sky spewing smoke and fire 100 feet above the waters below, transforming a tranquil waterfall into spectacular streams of molten lava.

Interesting tidbits about casino psychology:

* Casino lighting is designed to appeal to the subconscious. The casinos install millions of bright, flashy, colorful lights outside to lure your inside and innumerable dimmer, more subtle lights inside to put you in a gambling mood.

* Another ploy is locating elevators, reception desk and restaurants far away from the hotel-casino's main entrance. This forces people to walk by tempting slot machines and other gaming devices on their way to and from those destinations.

* Casinos know that people gamble bigger sums and more eagerly at night. That's why casinos are windowless. It creates the illusion that its night time even though its midday and the sun is shining brightly outside.

• Pros:Las Vegas, a 24-hour town, open 7 days a week.
• In a nutshell:"You can travel the world in Las Vegas simply by walking the Strip."